Saturday, February 1, 2014

LinkHow many large capacity magazines are there in Connecticut?We were unable to find this number, but the NSSF estimates that it could be in the tens of millions. NSSF used the following methodology to arrive at this figure.Based on Connecticut's percentage of National Instant Criminal Background Check System checks in the Unites States, NSSF estimated that the number of firearms owned by Connecticut residents is about three million. About one million of these firearms are handguns, of which 21%, or 231,000 use large capacity magazines. About 1.2 million are rifles, of which 30%, or 372,000 use large capacity magazines. Assuming four magazines owned for every firearm (assuming every firearm comes standard with at least two magazines), NSSF asserts there are over 2.4 million large capacity magazines in Connecticut that originated at the retail level. The NSSF final figure is larger than this because it counts firearms already in the state and those not purchased at the retail level.Link

More than 50,000 so-called ‘assault weapons’ were registered in Connecticut by the December 31st deadline under the new gun law.

However, apparently hundreds more people attempted to file at the last minute, but got stopped by the post office.

News 8 reported to you several times about the long lines of gun owners at the end of last year, lining up to comply with the state’s new gun registration requirements passed in the aftermath of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

While final official numbers are not expected for a few more weeks, the State Police report that as of today, a total of just over 50,000 so-called assault weapons have been registered and 38,000 high capacity ammunition magazines.

Apparently there were several hundred more Connecticut residents that attempted to file the proper applications, but missed the deadline because the post office closed early on New Year’s Eve and their applications were postmarked in January.

Links provided by ssgmarkcr with the following observation: "Some are trying to paint this as people waiting till the last minute, but it seems to me that its more likely that such a low level of items registered is a whole bunch of people deciding to say hell no."

Jacqueline Dormer / Republican-Herald Embattled Gilberton police Chief Mark Kessler talks with the media on Sept. 19. Kessler and his son are being sued by a woman who alleges the boy shot and injured her daughter.

Embattled Gilberton police Chief Mark Kessler and his son have been sued by a woman who alleges the boy shot and injured her daughter in March with a BB gun.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Schuylkill County Court, Jennifer Warnstorff and her daughter, Kiersten Manwiller, both of Frackville, alleged Zachary Kessler shot the girl in the leg at the Frackville Recreational Complex.

"(Manwiller) had to undergo two surgical procedures to remove the BB from her leg," the lawsuit reads.

Warnstorff and Manwiller asked for unspecified monetary damages, plus punitive damages, and demanded a jury trial of the case.

Mark Kessler has been the subject of national controversy over his using vulgar language and firing weapons on his YouTube videos.

The two repo men told deputies they made contact with Smith so she could get her personal items out of the car. They said she became angry, grabbed a bat, chased them into the road and threatened to shoot them. She grabbed the keys out of their tow truck, the report states, and demanded they leave her vehicle alone “or else.”

Smith chased them a second time before she tried to turn on their tow truck and lower her car off a wrecker, but couldn’t, the report states. Smith went into her house and retrieved a revolver, which she pointed at them. She put the gun to one man’s head and told him he had five seconds to lower the car off the wrecker, the report states. The repo men released the car and left.

Deputies were unable to find Smith’s car. She told them she drove it to a “safe location” so that it would not be repossessed. She added that she doesn’t own a gun, but she does own a bat that she keeps in her bedroom.

Deputies arrested Smith, charging her with two counts of third-degree assault and battery. She was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond. Court records show she has no prior criminal history.

Jessica Hill, File/Associated Press - File-This May 4, 2011, shows Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy speaking after signing a two-year $40.1 billion budget bill into law at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn. A federal judge upheld Connecticut’s gun control law on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, saying the sweeping measure is constitutional even as he acknowledged the Second Amendment rights of gun owners who sued to block it.

A federal judge upheld Connecticut’s gun control law on Thursday, saying the sweeping measure is constitutional even as he acknowledged the Second Amendment rights of gun owners who sued to block it.

The law, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed last April after months of negotiations in the legislature, was not entirely written “with the utmost clarity,” U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello said in his 47-page decision. Still, several provisions are “not impermissibly vague in all of their applications and, therefore, the challenged portions of the legislation are not unconstitutionally vague.”

Lawmakers, responding to the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012, banned the sale of large-capacity magazines and made more weapons illegal under the state’s assault weapons ban.

“While the act burdens the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights, it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control,” Covello ruled.

A Wausau man with a concealed-carry permit is accused of pulling a loaded gun on the owner of a town of Cleveland business and threatening to shoot him, according to court documents. Thomas Krautkramer, 30, was arrested Thursday afternoon when a man working at a Cleveland business told police Krautkramer and another man came to the business demanding money; when the worker refused, Krautkramer threatened to shoot him, according to court documents. Krautkramer will appear in Marathon County Circuit Court Wednesday, where he faces one felony count of making threats to injure. Misdemeanor charges of intentionally pointing a firearm at a person and disorderly conduct also were filed Friday against Krautkramer in connection with the incident, which was reported Thursday. Marathon County Circuit Judge LaMont Jacobsen on Friday ordered Krautkramer not to possess any weapons as a condition of bond. That order will trigger a suspension of his concealed-carry permit, Wisconsin Department of Justice Deputy Administrator David Zibolski said, because the DOJ checks court records daily for convictions or bail conditions that can result in license suspension or revocation. If Krautkramer is convicted, his permit will be revoked.

No consequences: A grand jury has decided not to indict the rookie police officer who shot dead 72-year-old Jerry Waller (right) on accident last May. Pictured above with wife Kathy

The Daily MailA grand jury in Tarrant County, Texas has decided not to indict the rookie police officer who shot dead a homeowner while investigating a burglary at the wrong address.

Last May, R.A. 'Alex' Hoeppner and his partner Benjamin Hanlon accidentally started searching 72-year-old Jerry Waller's property, confusing it in the dark for a house across the street.

Waller was in bed with his wife Kathy at the time, and was stirred by the police officer's flashlights. Fearing a prowler was outside, he grabbed his .35-caliber-pistol and went to investigate.

According to a search warrant affidavit released by the Star-Telegram in July, the two officers encountered an armed Waller near the corner of his home, told them they were police and to drop his gun.

Waller didn't drop his gun and instead raised it at Hoeppner who proceeded to fatally shoot the senior citizen seven times.

According to the autopsy report, Waller suffered three hits to his chest as well as single shots to his abdomen and hand. Two other bullets grazed his wrist and forearm.

Radio transmissions after the shooting record Hanlon telling dispatchers 'shots fired' and to send for an ambulance.

'I don't know who the guy is,' Hanlon says. 'The guy came out with a gun. He wouldn't put the gun down. He pointed it at Hoeppner. Hoeppner fired.'

Waller was found in his garage and pronounced dead at the scene.

The jury heard 25 hours of testimony over four days. Hoeppner testified twice and so did his partner Hanlon, who was fired last year from the department for filing a false sworn statement in an unrelated August arrest.

But in the end they decided there wasn't enough evidence to bring up criminal charges.

A 15-year-old Pleasants County girl was sent to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown Wednesday afternoon with a head wound after what is being deemed an accidental shooting, officials said.

The 15-year-old, whose name has not been provided, was rushed by Healthnet helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital after being shot in the head during the accident, said 1st Sgt. B. Snodgrass with the West Virginia State Police.

The incident took place at the Cloverdale Estates mobile home park, 5.2 miles southeast of St. Marys.

Knight was preparing to clean his handgun inside his mobile home when it accidentally discharged, Snodgrass said.

The bullet went through the wall of Knight's mobile home without injuring anyone. It traveled the distance between mobile homes, penetrated the wall of the neighbor's mobile home, and struck the 15-year-old in the head while she was watching television in the living room, Snodgrass said.

A man who fatally shot his wife last week in a Carson City hospital said Wednesday that he loved his spouse so much he had no other choice but to kill her.

"She was paralyzed from the neck down and very uncomfortable without much of a future, so I just helped her along," said William Dresser, 85, who has been charged with open murder and was released Friday on $225,000 bail.

He and Frances Dresser, 86, had been married 63 years.

When asked why he shot her, William Dresser said: "The fact that she had no future and was miserable and begging to die."

Earlier this week, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched a campaign asking Facebook and Instagram to immediately enact a policy prohibiting all sales and trades of firearms on their platforms. These social media platforms provide an unregulated online marketplace where felons, domestic abusers, and other dangerous people can easily obtain firearms.

In response to Moms Demand Action’s announcement, a Facebook spokesperson told reporters that the company, which also owns Instagram, is unable to prevent private sales because its platforms are not used for e-commerce. Below is a statement from Moms Demand Action Founder Shannon Watts responding to Facebook’s claims that it is unable to prohibit gun sales:

“This argument is misleading and disingenuous. Craigslist, a social media platform used for buying and trading, already prohibits gun sales, and specifically calls out ‘firearms/guns and components’ in its list of ‘content prohibited on Craigslist.’

A seven-year-old boy who brought his mother’s handgun to Inglewood Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon will not be charged by Metro Police.

The unnamed first grader showed the trigger-locked .22 caliber pistol to a classmate who then told a teacher about it, a Metro Nashville Police Department release said.

The gun was confiscated from the student’s backpack that afternoon. The boy was allowed to go home with his mother because of his age, police said.

His mother was not aware her son had taken the handgun and was “clearly angered” by what had happened.

OH well if mom was “angered” then that’s perfectly fine, right? I don’t expect charges to be filed against the child, you morons. I DO expect charges to be filed against the parents. You leave a gun where a) a child can get his hands on it, and b) can take it off your property without you even knowing about it? That’s the very definition of negligent behavior.

OK, Kid, I'm not going to support you because you need to make your way in the world. Besides, who needs an expensive college education? Hell, why bother with an education anyway: where in the hell will that get you?

According to police, medics were dispatched to the Columbus police headquarters at about 12:03 p.m. on a report of a shooting. An officer was processing a prisoner and had to put his gun into a lock box. As he was retrieving the gun and putting it in his holster, it discharged twice, striking the floor.

At the time of the shooting, it was unclear if anyone had been injured so a medic was requested as a precaution.The officer is a 26-year veteran with CPD.

The dispatch center initially told NBC4 the officer was shot in the hip.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett visited Bradley Tech High School to speak with students about gun violence following a shooting that injured five kids.

Police say several people in the basement were handling a shotgun loaded with bird shot when the gun went off. The victims range in age from 11 to 17. Investigators are questioning the people who were in the basement and say they're not getting a lot of cooperation.

Mayor Barrett says shootings like these underscore the need for adults in this community to act responsibility with their guns. "If you have a gun you have to have it locked up so children don't have access to it," says Barrett.

How about if the owner of the gun finds himself in the slammer? Wouldn't that carry the message a bit better than these continual warnings that the gun owners should lock up their guns?

The Intelligent Pistol, from Armatix, can only fire when it is within ten inches from a watch, with which it synchronizes. (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)CNET

Gun violence in the US is an all too common occurrence. Almost every day, there's a new school shooting or a report of someone's kid getting shot accidentally. Could technology come to the rescue?

A group spearheaded by angel investing kingpin Ron Conway thinks it can, and it has $4 million that says so.

A press conference downtown here on Tuesday, the Smart Tech Challenges Foundationlaunched the first of four $1 million challenges aimed at inspiring the kinds of innovation that could help lead to safer guns -- and a reduction in the number of tragic deaths and injuries that make the headlines nearly every day.

Although the foundation's leaders aren't naïve enough to believe that they can stop all gun violence, or bring technology to all firearms, their goals are simple: Help entrepreneurs and innovators bring new technologies to market that make it far harder for guns that fall into the wrong hands to hurt people. They think that the kinds of smart technologies already being used to track and lock devices like smart phones may well be the key.

"The (U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) reports that a quarter of its criminal gun trafficking involves stolen guns," said San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr at the press conference. "Guns do kill people. We need to have better gun control....Our [legislative] efforts to date have not been very successful, but...maybe there's more than one way to skin a cat."

Both his home and the home from which the shot emanated are located outside of any incorporated city limits, meaning state law takes precedent in the investigation into Fleming’s death. Florida law does allow homeowners to use firearms in their own backyards, as long as is not done “negligently or recklessly.”

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Why aren't all mass shooters considered terrorists even if not "politically" motivated? There is no common definition of terrorism. On the other hand, Common definitions of terrorism refer to violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).

Other than a crazy person has no identifiable religious, political, or ideological goal, they do have the other two parts of the definition: the use of violent acts which target or disregard the safety of civilians. We can debate whether actual religiously, politically, or ideologically motivated terrorists are crazy as well.

The real issue here is the use of violence for some "goal", whether real, or something which is completely insane. In fact, some people would say that anyone who feel the need to resort to violence is not completely with it.

The funny thing is that the pro-gun side appears to be pro-terrorist for some weird reason judging by the comments they made to MSNBC. Additionally, the Constitution is pretty clear that the use of terror is unconstitutional (see Article I, Section 8, clause 15; Article III, Section iii, and Article IV, Section 4). I would add that the Second Amendment does not explicitly contradict these clauses (but that is another post).As Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951) pointed out:

Whatever theoretical merit there may be
to the argument that there is a “right” to rebellion against
dictatorial governments is without force where the existing structure of
the government provides for peaceful and orderly change.

The problem is that some people who claim to believe in the Constitution have absolutely no idea what it says or intends. After all, why would a document that states as one of its purposes that it is to "ensure domestic tranquility" would allow for anarchy?

I would also add that if the people advocating overthrowing the government were left wing, they would be arrested in a heart beat.

On the other hand, I would be very wary of anyone who was openly advocating the overthrow of the United States and wasn't being regularly visited by the police.

Let's start with Chief Justice Warren Burger, a Conservative who was Chief Justice from 1969 to 1986:

Of course, that was before the term "conservative" came to have the meaning along the lines of being out of touch with reality or some kind of idiot in US English.

Next, we have another long sitting Justice, William O. Douglas, who was on the court for 36 years and 209 days (1939–75) which is the longest tenure in the history of the Supreme Court. He was on the court at the time US v. Miller was decided, but was not part of the panel that heard the case.

Time magazine called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court". Don't you think that such a person would come out for "gun rights" if such a concept actually existed?

Additionally, wouldn't his being on the Court when Miller was decided give him some sort of insight into the meaning of the decision?

In the former part of this opinion we have recurred to the
circumstances under which a similar provision was adopted in
England, and have thence deduced the reason of its adoption, and
consequently have seen the object in view when the right to keep
and bear arms was secured. All these considerations are left out
of view in the case referred to, and the court confine themselves
entirely to the consideration of the distinction between a law
prohibiting the right, and a law merely regulating the manner in
which arms may be worn. They say there can be no difference
between a law prohibiting the wearing concealed weapons and one
prohibiting the wearing them openly.
We think there is a manifest distinction. In the nature of
things, if they were not allowed to bear arms openly, they could
not bear them in their defence of the state at all. To bear arms
in defence of the state is to employ them in war, as arms are
usually employed by civilized nations. The arms, consisting of
swords, muskets, rifles, etc., must necessarily be borne openly; so
that a prohibition to bear them openly would be a denial of the
right altogether. And, as in their constitution the right to bear
arms in defence of themselves is coupled with the right to bear
them in defence of the state, we must understand the expressions as
meaning the same thing, and as relating to public, and not private,
to the common, and not the individual, defence.
But a prohibition to wear a spear concealed in a cane would in
no degree circumscribe the right to bear arms in the defence of the
state; for this weapon could in no degree contribute to its
defence, and would be worse than useless in an army. And, if, as
is above suggested, the wearing arms in defence of the citizens is
taken to mean the common defence, the same observations apply.
To make this view of the case still more clear, we may remark
that the phrase, "bear arms," is used in the Kentucky constitution
as well as in our own, and implies, as has already been suggested,
their military use. The 28th section of our bill of rights provides
"that no citizen of this state shall be compelled to bear arms
provided he will pay in equivalent, to be ascertained by law." Here
we know that the phrase has a military sense, and no other; and we
must infer that it is used in the same sense in the 26th section,
which secures to the citizen the right to bear arms. A man in the
pursuit of deer, elk, and buffaloes might carry his rifle every day
for forty years, and yet it would never be said of him that he had
borne arms; much less could it be said that a private citizen bears
arms because he has a dirk or pistol concealed under his clothes,
or a spear in a cane. So that, with deference, we think the
argument of the court in the case referred to, even upon the
question it has debated, is defective and inconclusive.

As I like to say, gunloon arguments don;t stand any serious scrutiny, which is why I usually try to give citations (unless it's something uncitable like a meme). In this case, it's a map of the research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):

That is not a unique finding as the Center for American Progress released another study
in April that pretty much said the same thing, and that showed that 10
states with the weakest gun laws had over twice the rate of gun violence
as the 10 states with the strongest gun laws. Also, in 2011, a writer
for The Atlantic found, with the help of a colleague, that the presence of gun laws in states had a strong correlation with less gun violence.

Of course, I have pointed out that this anti-gun bias has led to Federal funds being denied to similar research projects because such studies "may be used to advocate or promote gun control". Why withhold funding if there wasn't such an overwhelming prospect that the facts are against you?

A Glenwood man who accidentally shot himself on a school playground late last week now faces charges.

The Mills County Attorney's Office says Douglas Trent Good has been charged with carrying weapons on school grounds, a class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of $750 to $7,500. Authorities say Good accidentally shot himself in the leg at Glenwood West Elementary School's playground pickup area late Friday afternoon. Good was reportedly sitting in his vehicle when the gun accidentally discharged.

A former police officer in Glenwood, Creston, and Bellevue, Good currently works as a firearms trainer, and runs his own private investigating business, specializing in divorce and child custody cases. Good ran an unsuccessful campaign for Glenwood mayor last fall, losing to incumbent Kim Clark in November.

A former Marysville police officer, who was fired last year after his 3-year-old son fatally shot his 7-year-old sister with the officer’s handgun, may get his job back.

An arbitrator this week determined that the city should rehire Officer Derek Carlile, 32, 0f Camano Island, according to his former lawyer, David Allen. Carlile was fired in May following an internal investigation into the March 2012 shooting that left his daughter, Jenna, dead.

The city indicated Carlile would be reinstated. “The City is prepared to carry out the arbitrator’s ruling and bring him back to a Police Officer position in the Marysville Police Department,” the city said in a statement.

It wasn’t immediately known whether Carlile would return to the department.

According to Snohomish County prosecutors, Carlile left his loaded .38-caliber revolver in the family’s van with their four children unattended while he and his wife stepped outside to chat with a friend in Stanwood. While the parents were out of the vehicle, the boy climbed out of his car seat, retrieved the gun and fired, killing the girl.

Prosecutors charged Carlile with manslaughter, saying he was criminally negligent for leaving the gun where his son could reach it, but a jury was unable to reach a verdict. Prosecutors decided not to retry Carlile and asked a judge to dismiss the charge, saying they did not believe they would be able to find a jury that could reach a verdict.

On a largely party-line 65-34 vote Monday, the House passed Del. Todd Gilbert’s bill (HB705) to make it easier for someone with an out-of-state concealed handgun permit to carry the weapon legally in Virginia.

On a nearly identical 64-32 vote last week, the House passed Del. Dave LaRock’s bill (HB878), which would force the chief law enforcement officer of a locality to certify the transfer of a firearm within 30 days when such a certification is required under federal law for the transaction to occur.

The State Police opposed both bills. The LaRock bill was also opposed by the Virginia Sheriffs Association.

“We continue to see more and more of this extreme legislation that goes far beyond Second Amendment protections,” House Democratic leader David Toscano of Charlottesville said in a statement after today’s vote.

Both measures now go to the state Senate, where their fate is uncertain.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

2. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people

Lawnmowers don’t mow lawns, people do, but if want to be exceedingly efficient about it with very little effort or time, you will need a lawnmower. The obvious problem with the “guns don’t kill people” argument is that it confuses proximate and root causes. We can acknowledge that the root cause of maladaptive behavior is human decision-making, but that says nothing about how proximate causes, such as firearms, exacerbates the effect of bad decisions.

Compared to other high-income countries, for example, the United States has a firearm homicide rate that is 6.9 times higher than other high-income countries, a firearm suicide rate that is 5.8 times higher than other high-income countries, and an unintentional firearm death rate that is 5.2 times higher than other countries. In fact, 80% of all firearm deaths in the developed world occur in the United States.

In response to this overwhelming evidence, gun advocates argue that the problem can be solved simply with even more guns.

The Washington Post has gone “gun nut” recently by partnering with the Volokh Conspiracy, a legal blog that via its brilliant contributors, fact-based research and critical analysis has been a stalwart defender of 2nd Amendment rights for law-abiding citizens.

From now on, VC content, which is not exclusive to Second Amendment issues but covers a wide variety of constitutional, cultural and legal topics, will appear on the Post’s website, under a joint WashPo/VC banner.

As one might imagine, the announcement, made last week, was met with praise from conservative-leaning publications and pundits who identify with the VC’s latent libertarian bent, while also being derided by those institutions and individuals on the left.The right-wing American Spector, for example, applauded Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, who made a cash purchase of WashPo for $250 million back in August 2013, for the VC addition because it exposes the newspaper’s readership to a variety of different voices, many of whom are experts, scholars and luminaries in their respective fields.

“I’m impressed by this decision,” wrote Reid Smith of The American Spectator.

“Perhaps it should stand to reason that a man who made a fortune offering people choices, should offer the same alternatives to his readership,” he continued. “What a novel concept in today’s news atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, ThinkProgress.org was quick to lament the merger because of the VC’s past coverage of climate change, which has erred on the side of skepticism as opposed to dogmatically accepting the notion that humans are creating a dangerously warm planet.

“It is alarming that the Volokh Conspiracy doesn’t seem to understand the basis for the overwhelming scientific judgment that we are warming and will keep doing so absent sharp cuts in GHG emissions,” wrote Joe Romim of ThinkProgress. “It is even more alarming that Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post would think such uninformed conspiracy mongering belongs at the Post.”

Huffington PostApart from Ohio, which was dubbed "important" presumably because of its influence as a swing state in presidential elections, and Oregon ("good") or Colorado ("fit"), it's hard to call any of theses results a compliment. Nebraska is apparently "boring." Georgia is "backwards." Pennsylvania is "haunted." Rents in California, New York, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Alaska (!?!) have people thinking those states are too "expensive." A good few (South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia) were autocompleted as "poor."

A new Nevada poll suggests that expanding gun background checks is as popular as pizza.

It’s not that simple, of course, since gun control is a lot more complicated than a cheesy pie.

The survey of 688 Nevada voters was conducted Jan. 20-21 by Public Policy Polling for the liberal groups, ProgressNow Nevada and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

According to the poll, 78 percent of Nevadans support requiring a criminal background check of every person who wants to buy a firearm. Some 14 percent were opposed and 8 percent weren’t sure.

Asked “do you like pizza or not,” 80 percent said they did, 7 percent said they didn’t and 13 percent said they weren’t sure. (Not sure? That might have been the most puzzling answer in the poll.)

With school, college campus and hospital shootings making headlines recently, policymakers have been looking for ways to allow Americans to enjoy their Second Amendment right to bear arms while also trying to keep guns out of the hands of those who might turn to violence.

But universal gun background check legislation has failed at both the federal and state levels.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted against a bill that would have expanded criminal background checks to all gun sales at gun shows and online, one poll question noted.

Asked if Heller’s vote would make you more or less likely to vote for him, 20 percent said more likely, 43 percent said less likely, 35 percent said it wouldn’t matter and 2 percent weren’t sure. Heller isn’t up for re-election until 2018.

Nevadans were split on Heller’s popularity: 39 percent had a favorable opinion of him, 40 percent had an unfavorable opinion and 21 percent weren’t sure.

In another question, the pollster noted that last year both houses of the Nevada Legislature voted in favor of a bill to require a background check on all gun sales, but Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed the measure.

Over 7,000 children are hospitalized or killed due to gun violence every year, according to a new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics. An additional 3,000 children die from gun injuries before making it to the hospital, bringing the total number of injured or killed adolescents to 10,000 each year.

The new study, led by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, highlights the toll gun violence has on child mortality rates in the country. Doctors surveyed the most recently released data from 2009 that tracked pediatric hospital stays.

“This study reinforces what we know from the mortality data,” Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told NBC News. “We have an extraordinary health burden in our youth associated with firearms injuries.”

In the 2009 Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID), 7,391 children under the age of 20 had been hospitalized for injuries from firearms and the majority of those gunshot injuries —4,559—resulted from intentional firearm assaults. 2,149 of those injured were accidents, and 270 were suicide attempts. Of the children who were hospitalized, 453 – 6% – died from their injuries.

“That’s more than 7,000 children injured badly enough to be hospitalized,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. John Leventhal, a pediatrics professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “All are unnecessary hospitalizations because preventing gun violence is something that can actually be done.”

I almost didn't post this. I hate studies that call under-20-year-olds children, not because it's inaccurate - they could certainly be considered children, but because it gives you gun-rights fanatics fodder for complaint and an easy way to divert the discussion.

If I were in charge of the study, I'd have done under-18. The numbers still would have been impressive enough.

Having said that, the point of the article is in the last sentence that I posted.